Skip to main content

Thursday Quick Tips ~ Listen to your Kids


(Attention Thursday Quick Tips readers: This tip is a little wordy. I was actually just writing this post as a regular rant-and-rave post, but then decided to link it up. The actual tip is at the end if you want to skip over the mumbo-jumbo.)

Lately, our school just hasn't been fun. We are accompishing a lot on a daily basis with the necessaries. We do lots of reading, lots and lots of writing, grammar, spelling, and some pretty difficult math (our curriculum has the kids doing double digit math and subtraction in their heads ... HARD!). And we have managed to stick to our guns in making nature a priority, which has been a real joy in our week.

But by the end of the day we are kind of worn out. We grab our unit study, but really just want to be done for the day so don't give it all we've got. We have done some seasonal studies and have supplemented with Five in a Row. But, I'm not too excited about it, and the kids aren't either.

Sometimes I get annoyed when we are doing schoolwork because Eli will constantly interrupt me to talk about geography. If we are reading a story set in Italy, he can't hardly concentrate on what we were doing because of his interest in the country itself. (I know I sound like a horrible mother and teacher by being annoyed at something like this. It's my schedule-based personality.)

And then I realized, we just need to study geography. They love it. Why not make it our concentration? I actually have a couple of geography units planned next anyway (Nigeria and Indonesia) because of an upcoming play we want to attend and a product we are reviewing for The Crew. So why not just pick a country or a state or a city and spend a week learning about it?

I have always believed in Delight-Directed Learning. But for whatever reason I have us sitting at the table for far too long each day.

Today I had the kids tell me a list of places they want to study. Then I had them give me a list of activities they would like to do to learn about those places. It warmed my heart when Eli's first request was to read about it and take picture walks in the more complicated books. Because, to me, reading is the most important way to learn something. They also wanted to learn about the foods, education, religion, monuments, and to do a map of each place. (They love maps!)

The Quick Tip for this Thursday: Pay attention to your kids. They will tell you the best way to educate them.

Hopefully this will bring the fun back into our schooling. Could it be what you are needing, too? Check with Marcy at Ben and Me to see what other great tips you can pick up.


Comments

  1. The other day my kids made it very clear that Botany wasn't what they were interested in. We ditched Botany and added in some formal chemistry lessons. Now this time of day is met with excitement instead of "when is school over?". Great tip, thank you for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good for you. I soooooo want to do this with my 8th grader. I think in the month of December when we have a break from TOS Reviews I am going to do the same thing.
    Blessings
    Diane

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

We all know that in this crazy world of homeschooling, we need all the (adult) support we can get. Please leave a comment if you so wish!

Popular posts from this blog

ABCya

Eli's reading resource teacher shared a website with me yesterday that I would like to pass along. It's called ABCya . There are separate educational sections with fantastic games for ages kindergarten through 5th grade. I browsed the 2nd grade level, and it includes age-appropriate games about Letters, Numbers, Shapes, Geometry, Patterns, Mouse Manipulation, Art and Holiday games. There are lots and lots of fun and creative games for children to play. They are fun, but oh, so educational. Eli's favorite, in his short time playing it, was Create a Car . A lot of the games also have Apps available for purchase (99 cents for most of them) for the iPad and iPhone. I have been looking for another free website for games similar to Starfall , for some time. I think I have found it. I can feel confident having Eli and Brynne play these games.

Cells ~ It's What's for Dinner

Dawson made edible cells on Friday. He made an animal cell pizza ... and a plant cell chocolate chip cookie ... He reviewed what he's learned about cells the past two weeks, and I had dinner made by someone else. Win, win!! I am linking up at Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.

Last Child in the Woods ~ Chapters 1-4

Welcome to our book study of Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv. To be honest, I have no idea what this "study" is going to look like. I imagine that when we get together I will post about all of the things that caught my eye. And I would ask that you leave a comment, or a link to your own blog post in the comment, about what caught yours. This isn't anything formal, ladies, just a place to talk about what we have read. I have now read the first four chapters of Last Child in the Woods two times. It is just so good. Several things have specifically hit me deep, but in general I just realized that "times, they are a changin'." Things aren't the way they were when we were kids. Chapter 1. Gifts of Nature ~ "When I see birches bend to left and right ... I like to think some boy's been swinging them." ~ Robert Frost What is your definition of nature? What feelings, visions, senses does it conjure up? For me, it's not a